Tech Tip for Writers #56: Force a New Page

Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.

Q: I’m teaching my students to create a book report with a cover page. what’s the easiest way to get the cover on the first page and the report on the second?

A: Students as young as 2nd grade can learn to force a new page with Ctrl+enter. I have them create the cover page during one class and add the Ctrl+enter for the new page. That way, students can type the book report without me to help–even on the classroom computers.

For writers, it’s a quick way to move to a new chapter–faster than the menu commands. Umm, please tell me you don’t push ‘enter-enter…’ to reach a new page.

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7 thoughts on “Tech Tip for Writers #56: Force a New Page”

I had a terrible time with page breaks the first time I self-published a book, Jacqui. Not only did I have to have page breaks at exactly the right place I also had to have ‘section breaks’ so the numbering of the pages didn’t start on the first few pages of the book (where the title and copyright goes) because numbering had to start with the first chapter. I eventually got it right after a lot of hair pulling ;)

I have a writer friend who insists on using the space bar to indent text rather than using the tab key. Sometimes he even spaces all the way across the page to right align text. I have tried convincing him to start using the tab key and save his fingers but he refuses to budge.

His excuse is that he reckons he was the last person that went on the internet. He finally got himself a a computer when he could no longer get typewriter ribbons and only then did he get it because he picked it up from the nature strip during hard rubbish collection.That’s how out of date it was!

When his friends, family, editor, and publishers refused to answer his letters he finally realized he needed an email address so he eventually got one.

He also frustrates me no end with his insistence of using two spaces after the period.

I wonder if any of your followers know of or have quirky habits like my friend. I’d love to hear some of them. :)

What a great tip! I’ve recently learned the ctl commands for copying and pasting. Since I do a lot of that when I’m working on work projects, it was a huge time saver for me. This will be something else I can add to the mix when I’m doing cover sheets. Thanks for sharing!

About Me

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular "Building a Midshipman", the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.

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Writer’s Wisdom

"Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."
- Mark Twain
"There are three rules to writing a novel, but no one can agree what they are." W. Somerset Maugham

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